


A Second Chance for our Family?

by DoomsdayFairy



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Amnesiac Medusa, Found Family, Gen, Medical stuff, Nobody is having a good time, PTSD including panic attacks, Pandemics, Past Child Abuse, Resbang 2020, Smoking, animal testing, especially Crona is having a very very bad time, it's dealing with your trauma time baby!, no animal deaths I promise, please don't mind any scientific inaccuracies, referenced human testing, strong language (lots of swearing), syringes/needles are used at one point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 04:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30100200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoomsdayFairy/pseuds/DoomsdayFairy
Summary: After graduating from the DWMA, Crona now works with professor Stein as his live-in lab assistant. Together they’re working hard to combat a strange new virus that has started spreading all over the world. Everything is going fine, until Medusa is suddenly found to still be alive! The only catch is that she’s lost all her memories, and what’s more Shinigami-sama wants her to help Stein and Crona develop a vaccine for the virus! With their new life suddenly turned upside down by their mother’s presence, how is Crona supposed to deal with this? Could this “new” Medusa turn out to be the kind of mother they’ve always wished for? Or will the memories from the past prove to be too painful?
Relationships: Crona & Franken Stein, Crona & Marie Mjolnir, Crona & Medusa, Marie Mjolnir/Franken Stein, Past Franken Stein/Medusa
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4
Collections: Soul Eater Resonance Bang 2020





	A Second Chance for our Family?

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome readers! I hereby proudly present you with my entry for Resbang 2020! I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it :) 
> 
> For this project I partnered up with artist Soulheart who provided some amazing art which you can see here: https://thiefofblood.tumblr.com/private/645911917160955904/tumblr_qq49k6uosF1s33uwr
> 
> Also special thanks to my good friend Void (https://leevfrancis.tumblr.com/) for Beta reading this for me

The sunlight shone brightly through the window despite the curtains still being drawn. Crona groaned and pulled the cover over their head. Somewhere off in the distance they could hear the sun laughing, as if mocking their attempt to go back to sleep. Once it became clear that sleep was no longer an option Crona slowly dragged themselves out of bed and, after changing out of their pyjamas and into normal clothes, made their way into the kitchen. Marie, who was standing at stove frying pancakes, cheerfully called out to them as they entered,

“Good morning Crona!” 

Crona mumbled back some kind of greeting before they slumped into their usual seat at the table. Marie smiled at them as they reached over to the newly purchased pot and poured themselves a cup of coffee. 

“Is Stein not up yet?” Crona asked once the coffee had woken them up a little.

“Not yet,” Marie answered “But I guess it’s to be expected. You two were up pretty late last night,” 

“Mmm, yeah,” Crona answered, “It’s uhm, there’s… there’s a lot to do lately with… you know...” 

Marie nodded. 

“But you’re making progress, right?“

“A-a little little bit, I guess,” Crona answered “It’s… hard though,” 

“Hang in there,” Marie said “I’m sure you’ll figure everything out soon, if anyone can do it it’s you two,” Crona couldn’t help but smile a little. They weren’t sure if they deserved the compliment though, they really hadn’t been lying when they said that work had been hard lately. 

An all too familiar back pain suddenly interrupted their thought process

“Yo! Is that food I’m smelling? Why didn’t anyone wake me up? You’re the worst Crona!” 

“...Good morning Ragnarok,” 

“Yeah yeah, skip the pleasantries will ya? Let’s eat!”

“...I don’t think it’s done yet,” Crona said “Maybe drink some coffee..?” 

“Might as well,” Ragnarok said, as Crona poured another cup, “But just so you know, I’m starving!” 

“Don’t worry, it’s almost done,” Marie said “Just one more flip aaaand - there we go!” she smiled proudly as she brought the big stack of pancakes over to the table. Ragnarok immediately began piling most of them onto his plate, his coffee seemingly already forgotten. Crona sighed as they reached over and miraculously managed to grab some pancakes for themselves (not that they really needed to with the way Ragnarok was eating but still...) 

“T-thank you for the food,” they said to Marie, who had also managed to snatch a surprising amount of pancakes for herself. Marie smiled and nodded at them. 

For a few minutes the three of them sat and ate in comfortable silence, until Crona suddenly glanced at the clock on the wall and almost choked on their food. 

“Ah, it’s 9 o’clock already?! W-we have to get to work!” Crona hurriedly swallowed down the pancake in their mouth with the last of their coffee, and paused “But… Stein is not awake yet. Maybe I should go get him first? But then it might get too late… Marie what should I do?” 

“Do you have something important to do?” 

Crona nodded

“Then I think you should go ahead and get to work. I’ll wake up Stein, don’t worry, “

Crona nodded again, relieved, and smiled at Marie one last time before quickly heading into the lab. 

*

Crona had been working alone in the lab for about an hour when Stein finally entered. 

“Morning,” he said, fidgeting with the screw in his head.

“Good morning Professor,” Crona answered “I uuh, did some bloodwork on the mice earlier, sorry if I should have waited but you said 9 o’clock yesterday and...”

“The results?” 

Crona took a deep breath, reminding themself that Stein probably wouldn’t scold them for acting on their own like Medusa used to. 

“...nothing...it doesn’t seem to be working… sorry,” Crona went over to the table and fetched the clipboard with all the information they’d filled out earlier. As they handed it over to Stein he quickly flipped through the papers attached to it and sighed, 

“Damn it! This virus sure is resistant,” 

“... what do we do now?” Crona asked quietly “I really don’t think I can deal with another failure…” 

“We’ll have to keep trying. Although at this point, we might have to start over from scratch,” Stein pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, sighing loudly once more “How annoying...“

Crona didn’t say anything. They felt like no matter what they said it would only make the situation worse.

How long had they been trying to develop this vaccine without results? Far, far too long. At this point the ongoing pandemic would probably reach Death City before the vaccine was even half finished, and then everyone would get sick and it would be all their fault! Crona knew that things like these usually took a lot of time but… it usually wasn’t this urgent. Right now it honestly felt more like Crona and Stein were just wasting resources rather than actually helping. 

“Well,” Stein said suddenly, snapping Crona out of their dark thoughts “No use just standing here moping around. Let’s get to work,“

“Y-yes sir,” Crona said, quickly jumping back into action. Although the thoughts and fears of yet another impending failure still continued to haunt them as they worked all throughout the morning. 

Then, around noon, they suddenly remembered something. 

“Uum, professor?” 

“Hmm, yes?” Stein answered without looking up from his work,

“Can… Can I have my lunch break now? I promised Maka and Soul that I’d eat with them today and it’s almost lunch time so…” 

“Yeah sure, whatever, go ahead. Just make sure you’re back on time, we’ve got lots of work to do. And don’t forget to wash your hands,” 

“I won’t... thank you,” and with that Crona hurried out the door and left to head towards the city. 

*

“... And then he had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to come with him! I mean seriously, how dense can a person be!?” 

“Man, your dad sure has been a handful lately huh?”

“You can say that again,” Maka sighed “A very  _ persistent  _ handful though, I really don’t understand why he can’t just give up and leave me alone already!” 

“Hang in there,” Soul sympathetically patted Maka on the back “He’s gotta calm down eventually,” 

“...So, what did you tell him?” Crona asked, taking a sip of their water “You didn’t go with him, did you?” 

“I told him that if I wanted to look at 20 year old girls that badly then I’d just go look in the mirror,” 

Soul burst out laughing

“Oh man! That must have shut him up real quick!” Even Crona couldn’t help but smile a little. 

This was… nice, they thought. Just hanging out with friends like this, having lunch together, talking and laughing about whatever, it almost felt like they were back in school again. 

“Excuse me, are you ready to order?” a waitress said, smiling as she approached their table,

“Sure, I’ll have one of those spicy burgers with fries, oh and extra sauce please,” Soul said

“I think I’ll try the steak, well done please. And what about you Crona? You wanted steak as well, right?” 

Crona nodded

“Ok,” Maka turned towards the waitress with a smile “So that’s one burger with extra sauce and two steaks. How do you want yours cooked Crona? Well done? Medium? Rare?”

“... medium,” 

“Great, so make one steak well done and the other medium please,” Maka said. The waitress quickly wrote everything down,

“Anything else?” she asked

“No, we’re good, thanks!” Maka replied cheerily. The waitress smiled and nodded before she disappeared into the kitchen. 

“Man, I sure am hungry today,” Soul said “I hope the food is done soon,” 

“Don’t worry, this restaurant is usually pretty fast,” Maka said “That’s just one of the reasons I like going here, plus the food is great too,” 

“The food isn’t the main reason you go here?”

“Oh shut up Soul, you know what I mean!”

“Do I?” Soul smirked “Are you sure, because it sounds a bit like-  _ ouch _ !” Soul’s smirk turned into a pout as he rubbed the spot on his head where Maka had just hit him. Crona wondered if it actually hurt that much or if he was exaggerating. Personally they’d never gotten more than a light smack from Maka. Then again, they never really tried to annoy her on purpose the way Soul and sometimes Black★Star (not to mention  _ Ragnarok _ ) did. Crona decided then and there that they would never try too, it really didn’t seem worth it. 

“So anyway,” Maka said, turning away from Soul “How have you been lately Crona? How’s work? Any progress?” 

Oh great, work talk

“It’s uuh... “ What should they say? The truth? That would really just sour the mood wouldn’t it? “It’s uuh… going,” they said after a few seconds of contemplation.

Soul let out a small laugh

“Sure Mx ‘Got a job straight out of highschool’. It’s just _going_ ,” 

“ _ Soul _ ,” Maka scolded 

“I didn’t mean it as anything bad! I’m just saying that Crona is pretty lucky, that’s all! You and I haven’t been able to leave Death City and go on a mission for months now,” 

Oh right, travel restrictions

“You could have applied for the same internship I did,” Maka said “It’s not mine or Crona’s fault that you’re lazy,” 

“I’m not lazy, I’m just tired of school. If you wanna run around and play teacher all day I’m not gonna stop you,” 

“Whatever, I think it’s fun,”

“Good for you,” 

Crona wondered if Maka was going to hit Soul again, she was certainly looking at him dangerously. Luckily for Soul she didn’t get the chance to, as the waitress suddenly arrived with their food,

“Let’s see here, we’ve got a burger…”

“That’s mine!” 

“And two steaks, medium -” Crona awkwardly raised their hand “-and well done. Hope you like them,” the waitress sat the plates down with a smile and disappeared again. 

“Oh man!” Soul said blissfully as he bit into his burger “This is great stuff, we should go here more often,” 

Crona really couldn't do anything other than agree with his statement. Their steak also tasted great, and the fries that came with it were really good too. 

Once they were done eating and had paid for everything (they’d split the bill, despite Maka insisting that she could cover it,) Crona said goodbye to their friends. They were just about to start heading back towards the lab when their phone suddenly rang. 

Looking at the display, they could see Stein’s name. Why was he calling? They weren’t late, were they? 

“H...hello?” 

“ _ Crona, where are you right now? _ ”

“Umm, I’ve just left the restaurant. Sorry if I took too long, I’m… I’m gonna hurry back to the lab, I promise,”

“ _...Forget about the lab, you need to come to the DWMA, _ ”

“But… what about work? There’s still a lot-”

“ _ -this is more important, I’ll explain when you get here. Just go straight to the Death Room, I’ll meet you there _ ,” 

“Oh… okay…” 

_ *click* _

Stein hung up before Crona had the chance to say anything else. What was that about? Had something happened? Were they in trouble? 

“...I don’t know how to deal with this...” Crona mumbled to themselves as they followed Stein’s instructions, turning around from the direction they had previously been walking in and headed straight for the DWMA instead. 

*

“...Is this really necessary? I haven’t done anything bad, you know?”

“...” 

“You could at least answer me, now that you’ve dragged me all the way here,”

“...”

“Hello? Are you listening?” 

“...Your interrogators will be here soon, please be quiet until then,”

“...Ok, fine. They’d better hurry then, I really don’t have time for this,”

  
“...”

“...”

*

“ Uh...h-hello?” Crona carefully peeked into the Death Room. Stein and Shinigami-sama seemed to be in the middle of discussing something, but they both stopped and looked over when they noticed Crona.

“Ooh, you’re here! Wonderful,” Shinigami-sama said “So sorry for the short notice, both of you, but this was rather urgent you see,”

“Uuhm, w-what’s going on? Are we in some kind of trouble..?” 

“Hmm? Trouble? We might be, I suppose. It depends really…” 

“...I don’t understand,” 

“Professor, why don’t you help me explain? You summarized it so well earlier,” 

Stein, who had been standing there smoking a cigarette, sighed loudly. Crona didn’t think they had ever seen him look so troubled before. Actually, now that they thought about it, even Shinigami-sama’s usual cheerful tone had had a certain strain to it. 

This must be something really serious. 

Stein took a long drag of his cigarette and briefly stared up at the ceiling, as if contemplating something. Then after a few seconds of silence, he spoke

“Medusa is alive,” 

Crona felt their heart skip a beat. No way, he couldn’t have just said what they thought he said,

“...W-what…?”

“Medusa is alive,” Stein said again, very matter of factly. 

...No

No no no _ nono _

This had to be a mistake.

Medusa was dead.

She was dead.

Right? 

If she wasn’t, then… 

“...h-how?...wha-” 

“We don’t know,” Stein said, “But that’s not all,” 

What more could there possibly be? Wasn’t this situation bad enough already? Crona didn’t think they would be able to deal with anything else right now. But Stein just continued talking, 

“She seem to have lost her memories,” 

...huh? 

“Of course, she isn’t talking to us a whole lot right now. Not about anything important anyway. All we know for sure is that she was found living in a small remote mountain town in Europe, and that she  _ claims  _ to have lost all of her memories,” 

“Now obviously we can’t just believe this without question,” Shinigami-sama chimed in “And that is where you two come in!” 

“Us...two?” 

“You and Stein. Oh, I guess Ragnarok might be there too. Hmm, you three then! I want you three to go and help us interrogate Medusa!” 

“Wha… but why us?” 

“You knew Medusa, the  _ real  _ Medusa, the best. I’m sure that if anyone can tell whether or not she is lying to us it would be you,” 

That… made sense, unfortunately. Crona had almost hoped that they were just being told about this as a courtesy, but no it seemed that they would actually have to go and meet Medusa face to face again. 

Just the thought of that alone made them shiver. 

“Hey wait a minute!” Ragnarok suddenly popped out and yelled “Don’t think I didn’t hear all of that bullshit you guys just said! What makes you think we’re just gonna do what you say, huh? We’re not student’s here anymore you know?!”

“...Ragnarok...” 

“And what good do you think Crona is gonna be for interrogating anyway? Look at them,” Ragnarok grabbed a hold of Crona’s head and shook it back and forth for emphasis “Does this look like the face of someone who can get good answers out of people? They can’t even answer half of  _ their own _ questions! Quick tell them Crona, tell them how useless you would be!” 

“Ahem!” Shinigami-sama cleared his throat. Ragnarok went quiet, but he didn’t let go of Crona’s head “I think Crona will do just fine. They don’t have to say much, just pay attention. You can look at this as an act of public service,” 

“...Y-you don’t have to... you don’t have to be there,” Crona said, “We...we can do this on our own...”

“Oh I’m gonna be there alright!” Ragnarok said “Somebody’s gotta make sure you don’t piss yourself in fear,” Crona didn’t argue with that, in fact, hearing the weapons statement was almost a relief. 

“Okay then~” Shinigami-sama said cheerily “Now that that’s decided, there’s no time to waste. Let’s get this interrogation started!” 

Stein sighed again and put out his cigarette

“Well, guess we’d better get this over with huh?” 

“W-wait, now?!” Crona asked

“The sooner the better,” Shinigami-sama said

“Let’s go,” Stein said, putting a hand on Crona’s shoulder and gently leading them out of the room. 

After passing through the rest of the school (and Crona wondering several times what would happen if they just jumped out and fled through the nearest window, but never having the guts to actually  _ do  _ it) Stein finally led Crona and Ragnarok down into the basement. 

The three of them walked further and further down the dark corridors, passing by both Crona’s old room and the big locked chamber where the DWMA kept it’s various magical artifacts. Crona wondered just how far down Medusa was being kept. They understood that it was probably for safety. It was basically a labyrinth down here and it would be really hard to get out quickly for someone who didn’t know their way around, making it a pretty ideal place to house dangerous prisoners. But the longer it took to get there, the more Crona wanted to just get out of there and  _ run _ . 

Finally, they arrived in front of a small door with several big padlocks latched on to it. 

Death the Kid, Liz, and Patty were all standing around in the corridor outside, seemingly waiting for Stein and Crona (and Ragnarok, who’s grip around Crona’s head had only loosened slightly during the time it took to walk here) to arrive. 

Patty waved enthusiastically when she saw them, cheerful as always despite the situation. Kid and Liz on the other hand both had very serious expressions on their faces. 

“Ah, you’re here,” Kid said. It almost felt like he was looking directly at Crona, which just made them feel even more anxious.

“We came as fast as we could,” Stein said, “Is she alone in there?” 

Kid nodded,

“Alright then,” Stein said, twisting his screw a few turns backward “let’s get started shall we?” 

Kid fished out a big keychain from one of his pockets, using all of the keys, in order, to unlock the door. 

“Be careful,” he said as the door opened

“We will be,” Stein said, as he walked into the small cell. Crona hesitated outside for a bit, trying to calm their breathing, before they stepped forward and followed Stein inside.

*

She didn’t know how long she had been sitting alone in the darkness before the door finally opened. Medusa had to squint against the sudden light hitting her eyes from the corridor outside. 

A tall man wearing a lab coat, with a big screw (!?) in his head entered the room. The darkness of the room made it hard for Medusa to make out any other distinguishing features. Even so, she could clearly see a certain glint in his eyes as he gazed down on her where she sat chained up. She gazed back, making sure to look him directly in the eyes. If this guy thought he could intimidate her just by trying to make her feel small and helpless then she would show him that he had severely underestimated her. 

“Why, hello there…” She said, hoping she could get an advantage by being the first to break the silence, “Here to interrogate me I assume? You sure took your time,” The man didn’t say anything. He didn’t seem very intimidated by her either, which might prove to be a problem, he just continued to look down at her for a second before he very casually sat down in front of her. 

“Ah yes,” He said nonchalantly “Sorry for the wait, let’s get started right away. I’m Dr Stein, and this here is my assistant, Crona...” 

It was now that Medusa noticed that another person had also just entered the room. Just like Dr Stein they were also wearing a lab coat, albeit a much slimmer fit than the one Stein was wearing, and on their back they seemed to be carrying some kind of… stuffed animal maybe? She honestly wasn’t sure. 

Whatever the case, they seemed very anxious to be here. Wrapping their long thin arms around themselves and constantly casting glances back at the door as they slowly inched forward and sat down next to Stein. 

“Pleasure to meet you,” she said. Crona flinched. “Feel free to ask me whatever you like. Though I warn you, I truly don’t have a lot to say, so don’t complain to me when you realize that you’ve wasted your time,” 

“Oh, this will be anything but a waste of time, I assure you” Stein said “Well then, shall we begin?” 

Medusa only gave a slight nod

“You say you have amnesia, correct?” 

Medusa nodded again

“Then could you tell us your earliest memory?” 

“Hmm..? Let me think. It must have been a few years ago, I woke up alone in an abandoned building…”

*

It had been late in the evening when Crona and Stein finally returned home. Marie had seemed really worried, asking them a million questions about what had happened while offering them dinner that had already been put away in the fridge. Stein had taken her aside carefully and told her everything while Crona had just headed straight to their room, ignoring how both their stomach and Ragnarok seemed to be screaming for food, and immediately crashed in bed. 

Today had been… difficult, to say the least. Crona was still trying to process it all.

Just this morning they'd thought today would just be like any other day, and now, well… 

The conversation they’d had with Shinigami-sama after the interrogation still played in their mind. 

_ “And you’re sure it’s not a lie?” _

_ “Positive. Medusa might be a good actor, but for as long as we were talking to her there’s no way she wouldn’t slip up even just a little bit,” _

_ “Y-yeah,” Crona said “I don’t think she even recognized us… it’s weird...”  _

_ “Very well then, I suppose that only leaves us with the question of what to do with her?” _

_ “D-do with her? Can’t we just… let her go?”  _

_ “Hmm? And why would we do that? Amnesiac or not, she is still a criminal who needs to be punished. Although…” _

_ “A-although..?” _

_ “I suppose these  _ are _ special circumstances… So then… _

_...Oh, I have an idea!” _

Crona turned to face the clock on the bedside table with a sigh. 2:35 AM. It seemed that no matter how exhausted Crona felt, they wouldn’t get much sleep tonight. And probably not in the foreseeable future either. 

_ “Let Medusa work in the lab!”  _ Shinigami-sama had said. He’d seemed so proud of the idea too. 

_ “Let her work in the lab! She’ll help you with the vaccine, and once it’s finished she can receive a pardon for all that she’s done in the past,”  _ They supposed they could see why someone would think that was a good idea. For anyone else, having Medusa in the lab with all her medical knowledge and experience would mean that the currently very slowly developing vaccine might be finished much faster. For Crona though… 

They turned around in bed again and sighed. What were they supposed to do now? How were they supposed to work with Medusa there? Maybe they should just stay in bed and hide under the covers forever? They could text Maka to come and bring them food, and then they’d never have to go out and deal with facing their mother ever again! But… this room was part of their work contract, if Crona didn’t show up to work then maybe Stein and Marie wouldn’t let them live here anymore? They would probably run out of vacation days pretty quickly, so maybe hiding wasn’t an option… But then that meant… they would have to go and face Medusa again tomorrow…

...tomorrow

What would even happen tomorrow? Someone from the DWMA would bring Medusa over, and then what? Crona still remembered helping Medusa in _ her _ lab as a child. Mostly their job had just been to fetch things, from tools to chemicals to even live specimens (although most of the time  _ they  _ had been the live specimen). They had been  _ terrified _ of messing up, of fetching the wrong thing or dropping something, it had happened a few times and the punishments they had received for it were never fun. 

Would tomorrow be like that again? 

Then again... Medusa wouldn’t remember those times now, would she? She definitely didn’t seem to remember Crona, or Stein, and she hadn’t even acknowledged Ragnarok despite him being right there. If she was really telling the truth about her amnesia, and Crona was absolutely certain that she was, then… 

What would that mean, exactly? 

What would that mean for tomorrow? 

How would Medusa treat them if she didn’t know them? Would Crona… just be another random person to her? How did you treat a random person? With indifference? Politeness? Professionalism? Crona wasn’t sure. 

They glanced at the clock again. 3:05 AM. 5 hours left until they had to get up. Crona closed their eyes. Maybe they should just try to think about something else for a while so they could fall asleep, and deal with tomorrow tomorrow. It would be no good if they were too tired to work after all. 

Okay, what else was there to think about? Soul had mentioned an artist he liked dropping a new album, Marie had been talking about wanting a new carpet for the living room and had asked Crona for their opinions, and Maka was having trouble with her dad again. That last one Crona could relate too, now that their mom - No stop, bad thought! 

They had no idea how much time had passed, but eventually they somehow managed to fall asleep. 

*

“...And this is the lab. Feel free to look around while I go fetch some things, but please don’t touch anything,” Stein turned around and exited the room again. Crona stood still in the doorway, watching cautiously as Medusa inspected the room. 

Medusa didn’t pay them much mind as she was busy looking around at all the jars and bottles on the shelves, both empty and containing whatever substances that didn’t need to be refrigerated, as well as all of the equipment that laid strewn around on the work benches. 

“Is that mice?” She asked suddenly, pointing towards the small cage in the corner.

“Y-yeah” Crona, caught off guard, answered “W-we use them to-to test the vaccine prototypes and… stuff…” 

Silence

“T-the big gray one’s name is Smokey, and the smaller one is Dust ball, a-and the white ones are-”

“You’ve named them?” 

“...Y-yes…” 

“How adorable,” Medusa said with a smile. “Getting so attached to something even though you know it will die soon,” Crona didn’t know what to say. Luckily Stein chose that moment to return to the lab.

“Here,” he said, tossing a lab coat and a surgical mask at Medusa, “Put these on, there’s disposable gloves in that box over there. Now let’s get started,” 

Crona went over to fetch a pair of gloves for themself. Meanwhile Medusa did as instructed and put on the lab coat. It felt weird to see her just follow somebody else’s orders like that, Crona was so used to Medusa always being the one in charge of any situation, and they suddenly realized just how grateful they were for having Stein there in the lab with them. 

“So what exactly are we doing?” Medusa asked “From my understanding this vaccine has already been in development for a while, hasn’t it? So would you mind catching me up to speed?”

“I’ll lend you all our reports and studies to look over later,” Stein said, “For now, just try get yourself a basic understanding of what we’re dealing with,” 

“...Alright then, do we have any virus samples I can look at?”

“In the fridge,” Stein said and pointed “Crona, can you…?”

“I-I’ll get them,” Crona hurried over to the fridge and took out the samples. They carefully brought them back over to the work bench, where Medusa seemed to have already claimed the microscope. 

“H-here…” Crona hesitantly handed the little disk containing the sample over to her. Medusa took it without saying anything, she just slid it in under the microscope and started examining it carefully. 

“Well then,” Stein turned to Crona and said “While she does that, you and I should start working as well,” Crona nodded, and the two of them walked over and took their place at their own workbench leaving Medusa alone by the microscope. 

For the rest of the day the three of them worked mostly separately, with Medusa studying the virus samples closely and Stein and Crona continuing their own work.

Medusa really didn’t mind being alone for the day though. She was too preoccupied studying the samples provided, occasionally stopping to take notes, to care about what the other two were doing. She figured they would catch her up to where they were soon anyway, and these samples were really fascinating. Despite her annoyance at having essentially been kidnapped and forced into work, Medusa couldn’t help but feel just a little bit excited at getting to play a role in the vaccine development. 

As for her coworkers... 

“Here,” Stein said to her once the day was over, as he dumped a thick folder in her arms “This contains copies of all of our research so far, please read it quickly so we can start working together as soon as possible,” Medusa tried not to let her annoyance show at being ordered around so bluntly. She supposed she hadn’t quite made up her mind on how to feel about this man yet. On one hand he was frustratingly hard for her to read, a fact which he seemed very well aware of and almost like he took some sort of sick pleasure out of. On the other hand, she couldn’t help but to feel just a tiny bit intrigued by him as well. He certainly seemed like a special character, and he didn’t look half bad either. 

As for Crona, they honestly didn’t seem like much to either worry or get too excited about. Medusa wondered if they were always this nervous and skittish around everybody, or if maybe they just didn’t like strangers. She certainly hadn’t missed the way they had been silently observing her all throughout the day, like they were afraid she was going to suddenly come up and bite them. Still… there was something about them that Medusa couldn’t quite put her finger on. It was honestly kind of annoying. 

Well, whatever it was, she’d have plenty of time to figure it out. Today had only been the first day of her sentence after all, who knew how long the three of them would be working together from now on. 

Medusa looked down at the folder in her arms, it seemed she would have to do a lot of reading tonight. Then hopefully she could begin helping Stein and Crona for real soon. She was pretty curious as to how far the two of them had already come. She supposed that with all of this to do it wouldn’t be too terrible to spend another night alone down in her cell. 

*

“So,” Marie said as they sat down for dinner that evening, “how was today? Any good progress?” Crona didn’t say anything. They poked their food a bit with their fork. Fish and mashed potatoes. It smelled a bit odd. 

“It was fine,” Stein answered Marie’s question “About as much progress as usual,”

“And what about…” Marie glanced over at Crona, who cautiously took a small bite of their fish “...Medusa? How was she?” 

Oh, there was lemon on the fish. Crona wasn’t sure if they liked lemon. 

“She was… fine,” Stein said “We didn’t do much together today but-” Stein was also looking over at Crona now. Crona took another small bite. Nope, they didn’t like it “- she seems to still know what she’s doing when it comes to science, which is good. Hopefully we’ll make some faster progress now...” 

Crona kept their eyes focused on the food in front of them. Maybe if they kept ignoring everyone looking at them they’d stop and change the subject. Crona really didn’t want to talk about today, not now when it was supposed to be over anyway. It wasn’t that it had been bad, if anything today had been much better than Crona had thought it would be, but everything had just felt… weird. 

The few small interactions they’d had with Medusa had been fine. Crona had been scared and worried that something might happen, but she had been nice and polite to them the whole time. 

It had been…  _ almost _ like talking to a different person, and yet there seemed to be just enough of the old Medusa there for Crona to recognize. It was as if somebody had taken all of her personality and just squeezed all of the evil and malice out of it, like a lemon being squeezed out of its juice. And speaking of lemons… 

Maybe they’d like the mashed potatoes better. Crona took a bite, they tasted very buttery. Not that bad, they supposed, Crona  _ did  _ like butter. 

Stein and Marie had stopped looking at Crona and moved on with their conversation. Crona very discreetly tapped their own shoulder, and a few seconds later Ragnarok popped out around their shoulder blade. He looked like he was about to say something, probably an insult directed at Crona for disturbing him, but Crona put their finger to their lips and shushed him. They carefully picked up the plate and pointed towards the fish. Ragnarok’s face lit up. Before anyone had had the chance to notice the sword had grabbed the plate out of Crona’s hands and shoved all of its contents down his throat. Oh, he took the potatoes too. Whatever. 

“I-I’m done,” Crona said as soon as Ragnarok had retreated back into their body “t-thank you for the food,” Marie smiled at them

“You’re welcome,” she said “Are you leaving the table?” 

“If-if that’s okay,” Crona said “I’m tired…” 

“Of course, take it easy. It must have been a long day,” 

“Yes,” Stein said “But you’ve done good. Make sure to sleep well so we can keep working hard tomorrow,”

“Yes… I will. Thank you, uh, good night,” 

“Good night Crona,” 

And with that, Crona put their empty plate down in the sink and went back to their room. 

*

The next day was a Saturday. Which would normally mean having the day off, but right now it instead meant that Crona only worked half the day in the lab (“Don’t worry,” Stein had said when he told them “It’s only temporary. I’ll give you extra vacation days to compensate,”). Thankfully half a day was still more than enough time to go hang out at their friends’ apartment after work. 

“Ha Ha!” Soul laughed triumphantly “Take that Maka!” 

“Hmph” Maka, who had just finished getting 2nd place in Mario Kart, said “Whatever, I’ll beat you next round,” 

“Sure, I’d love to see it,” Soul said

“Uuh, how many rounds are there again?” Crona asked as they crossed the finish line in 6th place

“One more,” Soul said “This next one is a hard one,” 

“H-hard? How hard?”

“The hardest you’ll ever play,” 

“Oh no, then I’ll definitely get last place. I don’t know how I’m going to deal with getting last place,” 

“You don’t know for sure that you will,” Maka said, as she pressed the button to move on to the next round “Who knows, maybe you’re secretly really good at this one,” Crona highly doubted it. They weren’t very good at Mario Kart… or video games in general. 

Predictably enough, they didn’t win the next round. Although they didn’t exactly get in last place either so they supposed that was nice. To be fair, neither Soul nor Maka had managed to get in 1st place either (Maka had been close, but in the end she’d been beaten by Luigi who threw a shell at her. She’d still managed to beat Soul though). 

“Well,” Maka said, as she got up off the couch and stretched, “That was fun, does anyone want some ice cream?”

“Do we have any?” Soul asked

“I bought some earlier,” Maka answered “Unless you’ve somehow already found and eaten it all,”

“Haha, very funny,” Soul and Crona both got up off the couch as well and followed Maka into the kitchen, “I already told you that other time wasn’t me, it was Black★Star,” 

“And you’re  _ sure  _ you didn’t help him?” Maka said as she got bowls down from the kitchen cabinet and pulled the ice cream out of the freezer.

“Well,” Soul said awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head “maybe a  _ little bit _ ,” 

“I knew it,” Maka said. 

Meanwhile Crona opened up one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out 3 spoons.

“Thank you,” Maka said as they handed them over to her “Can you get the ice cream scoop too? It’s in the drawer below that one,” Crona did as instructed. 

Soon the three of them were sitting at the table in the kitchen, eating ice cream and talking. While Soul was excitedly telling Crona and Maka about the new album he liked that had just dropped, Crona was zoning out and looking out the window facing towards the DWMA. They wondered what Medusa was doing right now. Probably not much. If there was one thing they knew from experience it was that there wasn’t a whole lot to do when you were imprisoned in the school’s basement. 

“Crona?” Maka reached over the table and tapped them on the shoulder to get their attention. 

“huh?” Crona said “I’m- I’m listening!” 

“Heh,” Soul chuckled “What were you thinking about there? You looked really serious for a second,” 

“Oh,” Crona answered “It’s uh… “ They glanced out the window again, maybe they should just be honest. They were allowed to talk about it, right? 

“It’s… It’s… Medusa…” They said “I was just thinking… ” 

“...Oh, right,” Maka said, “I heard about that,” Crona looked back at her as she continued, “I didn’t really want to bring it up myself but… Are you okay?” 

Crona was surprised by the question.

Were they okay? 

“I… I don’t really know,” They admitted “Everything just feels really weird,” 

“...Weird how?” Soul asked, carefully “I mean, I think I can imagine but…” 

“She… Medusa… she doesn’t remember me. It’s like she’s different, but still the same… I don’t know” 

Both Soul and Maka nodded along like they understood what Crona was saying, although Crona highly doubted that they actually did. After all, how could someone else understand Crona’s feelings right now when they barely understood them themself. 

A “new” Medusa.

Different, but still the same.

Was this a good thing? Or…? 

“...I wonder what she thinks of me now…“ 

The room fell silent for a bit. Crona tried to avoid looking at anyone and instead fidgeted with their spoon. Soul was the first to eventually break the silence. 

“Well, that’s not really your problem anymore, is it?” 

“Huh?” Both Crona and Maka looked at him quizzically 

“What do you mean Soul?” Maka asked. Crona didn’t understand either.

“What I mean,” Soul said, “is that Medusa hasn’t been part of your life for years now, right? And you’ve managed just fine without her, so why should her opinion suddenly matter?” 

“T-that’s…” 

“Soul is right,” Maka said, “amnesia or not, you don’t need Medusa’s approval anymore. You can just finish working together and move on!” 

“Exactly!” Soul said “You’re better off without her, so don’t worry about it,” 

Crona stayed silent. 

Just like they thought, Soul and Maka didn’t get it. This wasn’t about  _ needing  _ anything, and it wasn’t as simple as Crona just being able to walk away from it all either. 

And maybe… they didn’t want to walk away. Or maybe they did. They honestly didn’t know. 

Or maybe… just maybe… now that they were older, and Medusa couldn’t remember them. Maybe they were secretly hoping that things could be different now?

Maybe… 

“But anyway,” Soul said, as he got up to put everyone’s now empty bowls in the sink “There’s no need to worry about that right now. We’re supposed to have fun and relax right? Wanna play some more Mario Kart?”

“Again?” Maka said “Can’t we play something else?” 

Soul shrugged

“Sure, like what?” 

“I don’t know, Smash maybe?” Maka looked over at Crona, likely to ask for their opinion. Seems like the previous conversation was over then. 

“Uuh, I’ve never played Smash before…” Crona said.

“Don’t worry, we’ll teach you! Come on,” Maka said, as her and Soul dragged Crona back out into the living room. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing video games, laughing and talking and making fun of each other until it started to get late and Crona had to go home. They said goodbye to each other in the hallway, exchanging some quick hugs and promising that they would meet up again soon, before Crona exited alone and started making their way back home. 

* 

Monday came around, and with it came time to go back to work again. 

“Wow, you look terrible, what happened?” 

Medusa shot a glare at Stein

“ _ Don’t _ ,” she said, as she once again put on the lab coat she’d been provided, “I’ve spent almost the whole weekend reading through your research, I’ve barely slept tonight, I’m  _ tired _ ! So  _ please  _ do not try to test my patience today or I will-,”

“Great,” Stein said, seemingly not caring what else Medusa had to say “Then that means you’re ready to start working with us for real now,” Medusa wanted to straight up strangle the man. Luckily for him she prided herself in having better self control than that, so she simply chose to ignore his comment and instead focused on her work.  __

She tried her best not to let her tiredness affect her as she worked throughout the morning. But thanks to the strong smell of chemicals in the lab and the bright fluorescent lights overhead she had still managed to build up a pretty noticeable (and annoying) headache around noon. 

“Oh for fucks sake,” Medusa grumbled as she looked down at the paper in her hands. She erased the wrong number that she had accidentally written down and tried to write the correct one instead. Which number was it again? Damn it, she couldn’t remember! 

“...M-maybe...” 

“ _ Yes _ ,” Medusa  _ almost  _ snapped at Crona, who took a startled step back. “What is it?” 

“Ah- s-s-sorry, I just… I just thought maybe… maybe if… maybe we should take a break…?”

“...” 

“I… I can go… make us coffee or… something…” Crona looked down at the floor. Medusa took a deep breath.  _ ‘Calm down’  _ she thought to herself  _ ‘getting angry at them won’t accomplish anything’ _ . 

“That sounds like a great idea,” She said, forcing a smile “Thank you,” 

Crona looked up at her again and nodded carefully. Medusa suddenly got a weird feeling, almost like deja vu. However it quickly vanished again as Crona took off their coat and gloves and disappeared out of the lab. 

They came back a short while later, carrying a tray filled with sandwiches and three cups of coffee. They set it down on an empty bench in the corner of the room. Medusa pulled off her gloves and went over, taking the cup Crona handed to her and taking a big gulp right away. 

Fuck, this was  _ exactly _ what she needed. 

“Uuh,” Crona said, as Stein also came over and raised an eyebrow at the sight of the sandwiches “Marie said she thought we should eat something,” 

“Who is Marie?” Medusa asked 

“My wife,” Stein answered

Oh. 

Well, Medusa supposed she had finally made up her mind on how she felt about Stein then… 

… He was just annoying. 

“H-here,” Crona said, offering her a sandwich “It’s cheese,” Medusa accepted the food from them and took a bite. Yup, it sure did have cheese in it. 

Thankfully the coffee did it’s job, and Medusa found it much easier to work the rest of the day. Despite this though she still felt exhausted once the day was over. Returning to her cell almost felt like a blessing, although she really wished the bed was more comfortable. She missed her own bed at home, this one felt just a little too small… too empty… 

She didn’t have much more time to think about it though, as sleepiness quickly set in and it wasn’t long before she had completely drifted into unconsciousness.

*

The rest of the week passed, and thankfully Medusa slept much better. Crona, on the other hand, did not.

“Hey calm the fuck down will you!? I’m trying to sleep in here!” 

“S-s-sorry,” Crona said, placing their hand over their rapidly beating heart hoping to calm it down. Unfortunately it didn't work. 

“Hmpf,” Ragnarok said “This is the third time this week! Do I need to call you a doctor or something just so I can get some sleep, huh?”

“W-w-we live with a d-doctor. And n-no it’s fine…” 

“Like hell it is!” Ragnarok smacked Crona on the forehead “You’re shaking like a fucking leaf!” 

He… might have had a point there. They were no stranger to having nightmares, and they were used to feeling anxious, but it had been a while since any of those things had last resulted in a full blown panic attack. 

“S-so-sorry,” they said again, “I-I’ll try to calm down, I-I promise,” Ragnarok did not look amused. 

“You’d better,” He said “Go take a fucking walk to calm down or something, and stop waking me up like this!” 

That might not be a terrible idea. Maybe not going for a walk, it was the middle of the night after all, but perhaps getting out of bed for a while would help. 

As Ragnarok huffed and retreated back into their still shaking body, Crona carefully slipped the covers off and got out of bed. They put on the pink bunny slippers that Maka had given them as a gift once and as quietly as possible snuck out of their room. 

After standing for a while in the darkness of the living room trying to calm their breathing Crona felt a bit better. They had just started contemplating whether or not they should try to go back to sleep when a voice suddenly called out to them from behind.

“Crona?”

Crona jumped and turned around in surprise. Stein, who was standing in the doorway, put his hands up in a non-threatening gesture. 

“Sorry,” He said, “Didn’t mean to scare you,” Crona sighed in relief

“It-it’s fine,” They said “I’m okay,” Stein stepped into the living room and walked over to them

“What are you doing?” He said “A bit late to be up now, isn’t it?” 

“I…” Crona said “I couldn’t sleep, sorry,” 

“No need to apologize,” Stein said “I understand,”

“... Did I wake you?” Crona asked, hoping desperately that that wasn’t the case. They’d feel really bad if it was.

“No,” Stein said “I’ve been awake for a while. Thought I might as well get up, get a glass of water or something, and then I found you,” 

“Oh…” Crona went silent. For a minute or so nobody said anything, then Stein spoke up again,

“You know, I know I don’t say this as often as I should, but, I’m proud of you,”

“Huh?” That was unexpected, Crona had no idea what to even say. Stein continued,

“I mean it,” He said “I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t sure how you were gonna handle everything that’s been going on lately, but you’ve continued to work hard despite all that. I really couldn’t have asked for a better assistant,” Crona felt their face heat up a little, they’d never really known how to deal with getting praise. Still… why was he saying this now all of a sudden? 

“But,” Stein continued “I also understand that it must be difficult. Even I am having a bit of trouble keeping my composure around… her,” 

Oh 

“...Y-you?” Crona couldn’t believe it. While they had been so constantly on edge these last few weeks Stein had seemed so calm and collected. Had he been faking it the whole time?

“You are having trouble with… Medusa?” 

“Well sure, why do you think I tease her so much? Keeping the atmosphere light… it helps keep the heavier thoughts from getting to you. I mean… She’s pretty much my ex-girlfriend after all,” Oh yeah, Crona had almost forgotten about that. 

“... I don’t think Marie likes it very much when she’s here,” Crona said. They remembered when she’d helped them make sandwiches. She’d been very adamant that everyone knew that it was her idea, almost like she was marking her territory. 

Stein chuckled

“Yeah, me neither. Too bad Marie couldn’t help us out instead huh?” 

“Yeah,” Crona tried to imagine Marie working in the lab with them, not really knowing anything about science, and smiled because it was funny. Then they felt a bit bad for thinking it was funny, and their smile quickly vanished again. 

Stein suddenly took a deep breath

“But what I’m trying to say is,” He said “it’s okay if you happen to be struggling a bit right now. You’re not alone, you know? You can always come talk to me, or Marie. You don’t have to feel bad, okay?” 

Crona was truly at a loss for words. They really hadn’t expected that, still… it felt nice to know that someone was thinking about them.

“Ah fuck,” Stein said suddenly and cleared his throat “Sorry, I’m really bad at this emotional stuff… “ 

“... no, it’s fine. Thank you…” Crona said.

“Glad I could help. Anyway, you should go to sleep now, we’ve got another long day tomorrow,” Crona nodded, and Stein followed them out of the living room.

“G-good night,” Crona said, as they stood outside their own door,

“Good night Crona,” Stein said, as he turned and walked towards his and Marie’s bedroom. Crona watched him leave for a few seconds before they went into their room and got back into bed. 

They thought about the conversation they’d just had for a bit, how nice it was of Stein to check up on them, even though they doubted that even he could understand how they felt right now, before they finally drifted off to sleep. 

*

“...Hi Marie, is Stein not awake yet?” 

“No, not yet. Do you want some coffee?” 

“Okay,”

“Although it is a bit strange, he should be up by now. Medusa is coming soon isn’t she?” 

“...Yes,”

“I’m going to go check on him. Wait here,”

“...Okay,” 

*

When Medusa arrived that day she was surprised to see Crona already in the lab working.

Alone.

“Hello,” She said. Crona jumped, seemingly a bit startled. “Where is Stein at? You two usually give me a better greeting then this,” 

“Ah,” Crona said, they looked really nervous. “He’s… not coming today. H-he’s sick,” 

“Sick?” Medusa asked, a bad feeling creeping up on her. It couldn’t possibly be..?

“It’s… it’s the virus,” Crona said, confirming her suspicion “A-and he’s not the only one. We-we got a call from Shinigami-sama earlier… other people in Death City are sick too..” Crona turned their gaze down at the floor and mumbled to themself, “...I don’t know how to deal with this,” 

Medusa sighed

“I suppose it’s just you and me then. Let’s get on with it shall we?” 

Crona took a deep breath and nodded. 

The rest of the day passed by relatively uneventfully. Working alone by Medusa’s side again reminded Crona of their childhood. It was a bit scary now that it was just the two of them alone, but it was also a little bit nostalgic. 

Back then years ago when Medusa had supposedly “died” Crona hadn’t really wanted to admit it but… they’d kind of missed her. Of course they had been relieved that she was gone too, and they were more than grateful for their new life and everyone in it, but still… It was hard, to not even have gotten to say a proper goodbye. 

Now on the other hand, there were a lot of things that could be said. Crona  _ tried  _ to make small talk a few times throughout the day, but Medusa didn’t really seem interested in talking about any of the things that Crona came up with so they quickly dropped it. Not that they blamed Medusa or anything, they'd never really understood the point of basic small talk themself until just now. There were, of course, a lot of other things besides the more basic questions that Crona would have really liked to talk to Medusa about. Questions about her new life, like what she did now? Where did she live? Had she made any new friends? Anything to add on to the stuff that had come up back when they and Stein interrogated her. But without Stein here to back them up, Crona didn’t have the guts to ask Medusa any personal questions. Staying up to speed on their work and trying to make sure that they didn’t accidentally step out of line or mess anything up was hard enough already, they didn’t think they could deal with also navigating a conversation that might get a little too personal for Medusa’s liking. After all, Crona knew very well what Medusa could be like when you annoyed her. No it was better to just keep their conversations in the safe zone. 

Thankfully there was still  _ one  _ topic that Medusa and Crona seemed to be able to talk quite a lot about: work. It wasn’t the most fun topic, and not exactly the most intimate kind of conversation either, but it wasn’t actually all that unpleasant. At least Medusa seemed to actually  _ listen  _ to them, something that she had never really done before. Probably because science was something that Medusa was actually interested in. 

With so many things to do the day passed by very quickly. Crona didn’t even notice how late it had gotten until a voice called out to them from the lab's entrance.

“Hello?” Surprised, Crona quickly spun around and almost dropped the vial they were holding.

“Oh, sorry,” Marie, whom the voice belonged to, said “I just thought I should say that the DWMA is here to pick Medusa up,” 

“Oh dear,” Medusa said, “is it already that late?” 

“Yes, time sure flies sometimes doesn’t it?” Marie answered “Crona and I are having dinner soon, so you two should probably wrap things up for today,” 

“Yes, we will. Thank you,” Medusa turned her back at Marie and started finishing up what she was doing. Marie looked at Crona and gave them a smile before she turned around and exited the lab. 

“Uh…” Crona turned towards Medusa, a bit unsure of what to say. She hadn’t seemed very happy with Marie’s presence. Crona really hoped she wasn’t mad. 

“Well, you heard her,” Medusa said, without looking up from her work “Let’s wrap things up,” 

“...” 

“...It’s a shame though, isn’t it? Imagine how much faster we would be done if we didn’t have such a limited time schedule. Hell, we’re so close to finishing, if we could just pull one or two all nighters we would have a working vaccine by the end of the week,” 

“...we could…” Crona took a deep breath and tried to steady their voice “...We could always ask… for more time…” Medusa stopped working and looked at them,

“...Yes,” She said slowly “I suppose we could. Can you do that, Crona? Can you ask?” Crona froze. She wanted  _ them  _ to ask?! Oh no. 

Medusa must have seen the look of horror on their face, because she immediately sighed and said

“Or I suppose  _ I  _ could ask. But really, what’s the worst that could happen?” Crona didn’t answer. They thought that Medusa was going to scold them more, but a knock on the door prevented that. 

“I’m coming!” Medusa shouted “Honestly, how impatient are they?” She grumbled as she took off her lab coat and hung it on the wall next to the door.

“Well, I’ll be off then. Goodnight Crona,” She said as she opened the door and exited.

Crona half-heartedly waved at her as she left, though they weren’t sure if she saw it, before they began the task of wrapping up whatever was left for the day before they also left to go eat dinner.

*

“... are you sleeping on the couch tonight Marie?” Crona asked after dinner, as they saw Marie start to put a bedsheet on the aforementioned furniture.

“Yup,” She answered “With Stein being sick in our bedroom it just seemed a bit safer,” 

“Ha!” Ragnarok laughed “You sure he didn’t just kick you out? After all, only naughty wifes sleep on the couch!”

“T-that’s not true!” Crona quickly said “Y-you heard her! He’s sick! It’s safer!..”

“Thank you for defending me Crona,” Marie said “Shouldn’t you be off to bed too soon? It’s awfully late,” 

Ragnarok hmph-ed

“Yeah Crona!” He said “Why don’t you just waste the evening away and go to bed? I swear, you never do anything  _ fun  _ nowadays!” 

“Ah,” Crona said “I should… but… M-Marie, are you sure you don’t want my bed? I-I can sleep on the couch,” 

“What!?” Ragnarok exclaimed, “And let her into our room! No fucking way!”

“It’s very nice of you to offer Crona, but I’m sure. I don’t want to take your room away,”

“B-but…” 

“Besides, you still have important work tomorrow. I want you to be well rested, okay?” Marie smiled at them. Crona immediately felt more at ease. 

“...O-okay,” They said “Goodnight then,” 

“Goodnight,” 

*

Somehow, the next day, Medusa had miraculously managed to get Shinigami-sama’s permission to stay later at the lab. Crona and Medusa had spent the whole day working, only stopping around noon to take a quick coffee break. 

Once evening arrived Marie had ordered everyone takeout for dinner (she asked Medusa to pay her back later, to which Medusa, seemingly reluctantly, agreed). After dinner Crona and Medusa had quickly gotten back to work. It felt weird to see the sun start to set and the hours slowly tick by, and yet Medusa was still there. 

Crona was starting to think that they  _ might  _ have overestimated just how much work they were actually capable of doing in one day. As the sky turned completely dark and the moon shone it’s dim light down upon them Crona noticed that they were starting to get a bit tired. They glanced over at the clock that hung on the wall, 11:30 PM, normally they would already be laying in bed by now. They wondered if Marie had gone to sleep yet? Most likely she had, Crona hoped sleeping on the couch wasn’t too uncomfortable for her. They really should have offered her their bed tonight, shouldn’t they? Since they were staying up so late anyway. How selfish of them not to think of that, they would really have to do something to make up for it tomorrow. 

”...Crona, are you listening?” The sound of Medusa’s voice talking to them snapped Crona out of their thoughts,

“Wha- Ah! Y-yes, I’m listening!” 

“Oh really?” Medusa said “What did I say then?” 

“Oh, uhmm…” Oh shit, what did she say? Was it important? Was she going to get mad? Crona really should have been paying attention better! “Uhmm, I… I don’t know… S-sorry...” 

Medusa tsk-ed

“ _ Honestly _ ,” She said and shook her head, “I asked you if you think we’re ready to run more tests soon,” 

“...Oh,” Crona grabbed the clipboard laying next to Medusa and quickly skimmed through the papers attached, “Y-yes,” they said after a few seconds of gathering their thoughts “E-everything looks good,” 

Medusa nodded, satisfied. 

“Good,” She said. 

Crona hung their head low as they continued working. Medusa seemed to glance over at them occasionally, it made Crona feel really uncomfortable. Then, Medusa suddenly reached out across the table in front of Crona and quickly grabbed a vial that was sitting next to them. Crona involuntarily flinched and stepped back as her arm came within touching distance of them. 

“Why do you always do that?” Medusa asked, dragging the vial over to her side

“D-do what?” Crona asked, confused. What was this about? Had they done something wrong? 

“Fliniching,” Medusa answered

oh 

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed,” she said “You don’t seem to do it with Stein, or anyone else as far as I can tell, only with me,” Crona didn’t like where this was going. “Are you scared of me?” 

What should they say? No? Yes? What kind of answer was she expecting? What if they said the wrong thing? No no no, they couldn’t deal with this!

“...no..?” oh please be the right answer, please be the right answer, please be-

“You’re a terrible liar,”

_ Fuck  _

“S-s-sorry,” Crona quickly scrambled to come up with something to say “It’s- it’s just… I-I…” 

“Oh calm down, for the love of..! I’m not going to bite you or anything,” 

“Sorry-sorry-so-” 

“Am I seriously  _ that  _ scary?” 

Crona took a deep breath.  _ Calm down  _ they thought.  _ She doesn’t know, she hasn’t done anything wrong, you’re a grownup just like her, she doesn’t know, she doesn’t- _

“...Sorry,” they said “It’s not… It’s not your fault, it’s just,” they took another deep breath “You remind me a bit of… someone, and sometimes it’s a little… it’s…”

“...Who?” Medusa said “Who do I remind you of?” 

“... My… My mother she…“ Medusa was silent. Crona didn’t know if that was a good sign or not, either way, they continued, “...she wasn’t… uuh… she… sometimes she would… if - if I did something wrong she…” Crona trailed off. They didn’t know if they should continue talking. Sure, they’d wanted to have a more intimate conversation with Medusa for a while but… not like this! 

Medusa was apparently not satisfied however, as she kept prodding for more information.

“If you did something wrong, your mother would… what?” She asked. Crona took a deep shaky breath before they answered.

“She… she…” it was okay if they said it, right? Medusa wanted to know, right? She wouldn’t react badly if she didn’t know they were talking about her, right? 

...right?

“She… she used to l-lock - lock me up, and it would take days before… before…” Silence “A-and - and there was never any food, or water… and there was no sunlight and…” Crona felt their eyes start to water as they recalled the memories of their childhood. It had been so long since they really thought about it. Those had truly been some horrible times. However Crona was determined not to let Medusa see them cry like this. Crona quickly turned around and wiped their eyes before the tears had a chance to spill. When they turned back again a few seconds later Medusa was either pretending that she hadn’t noticed, or she just simply didn’t care. Either way she remained silent for a bit, as if contemplating something, and then she said,

“Well, that seems a bit excessive,” 

“H-huh?” Crona asked shakely.

“Locking you up like that for days without food and water, simply for the act of misbehaving, I can’t really see what purpose that would serve,” She said, and then continued “I would never treat my child like that,” 

Crona froze. 

Did she just really say..?

“Y-your...child?”

“Have I not mentioned her?” Medusa asked “I could have sworn I did, oh well…”

“W-who?” Crona asked. No way, she couldn’t be… She couldn’t have… Right?

“My daughter,” Medusa said “Her name is Shiro, she’s three and a half years old. Right now she’s back at home with her father,” 

… Her daughter… 

Medusa had… 

...and that meant that Crona… 

But… but… 

“...You look a bit pale Crona. Is something wrong? We can stop for tonight if you’re tired,” 

“N-no,” Crona said, “It’s… fine,”

It was not fine. 

Not at all.

“...Very well then. Let’s see if we can run those tests now, then well check on the results tomorrow,” Crona nodded. 

They walked out of the lab that night still in a daze. As they had thought, Marie was already deep asleep. Crona walked quietly to their room, changing into their pyjamas on auto pilot before they crashed into their bed. 

And this time, they couldn’t hold back their tears. 

*

The very next morning Crona was barely able to drag themself out of bed. They didn’t want to go to work today! For some reason they really dreaded seeing Medusa again. It was stupid, of course, Crona knew that. But after yesterday’s events, Crona really didn’t know how they should approach her. Even after they’d spent hours crying in bed last night, the shock of what Medusa had revealed to them still felt too raw and fresh in their mind. 

They had a sister.

They had a  _ sister _ ! 

And a stepfather too, apparently. It was… it was too much. Everything that had happened lately with Medusa herself, and now this, it was just all too much. Crona had absolutely no idea how they were supposed to deal with this! Their whole world felt like it had just been turned completely upside down. And what made everything even worse was the fact that Medusa had no idea how they were feeling. As far as she was concerned she had just shared a fun fact about herself with her coworker, she had no idea just how much that fact had affected Crona personally! 

She had no idea… that they were her child too. And how could she? Nobody had told her, or even as much as hinted at the fact. Up until yesterday Crona had thought that that was a good thing, that they could be safe behind the fact that Medusa would only see them as a coworker and nothing more, but now they weren’t so sure.

“Well then, let’s have a look at those results now, shall we?” Medusa said, as her and Crona entered the lab together. Crona didn’t even look at her, they just nodded and walked over to the cage where today’s test subject, Smokey the mouse, was resting. They carefully picked him up and held him, stroking his fur in an attempt at being comforting as Medusa drew his blood with a syringe. When she was done Crona put Smokey down in the cage again and gave him a treat for being good. 

Meanwhile Medusa took the collected blood sample and studied it closer. After a few long minutes of examining it under the microscope she beckoned Crona over and told them to take a look, 

“Is that..?” Crona couldn’t believe their eyes. Medusa nodded

“Antibodies. Pretty strong ones too,” she said, the pride evident in her voice.

“...wow,” was all that Crona managed to say. 

They’d done it. Finally.

Crona had really thought that they would feel happier about this. Then again, it was hard to feel anything at all right now. Because on one hand this meant that the pandemic was one step closer to finally being over, but on the other hand didn’t this also mean..?

“We’re going to need to run more tests, of course,” Medusa said “But I, for one, can not wait to get out of here. No offense please,”

… Medusa would leave soon. She would leave and go back to europe. Back to her new partner. Back to  _ Shiro _ . 

Maybe it would be different if Medusa had known the truth. Maybe then she would want to stay a bit longer, or at least wouldn’t be so quick and eager to leave Crona behind. Then again, the Medusa that Crona had known probably wouldn’t have hesitated to abandon them once she felt like she was done with them. After all she hadn’t exactly checked up on them very often all those times when she’d locked them up, in fact, Crona had a suspicion that she hadn’t even been home most of that time. Would Medusa ever leave Shiro like that? Probably not, at least if what she said yesterday was any indication. No, _Shiro_ wouldn’t be left behind. In fact Shiro would probably be _delighted_ when her mother finally came back home after what was almost an entire month of being away now. She would probably rush into Medusa’s arms and receive a warm and happy greeting. Shiro wouldn’t be pushed away. Shiro wouldn’t be told that her mother had much better things to do. Shiro would feel safe, and happy, and loved, and - 

“I’ll call the DWMA at once and let them know of these new developments,” Medusa said “Hopefully we can get their permission to move on to the next development phase soon,”

… that’s right, the next phase. This was just the first one, the vaccine was still far from finished. Next they would have to start testing how well it would work on humans, and that might also take a while so… Medusa probably wasn’t leaving just yet. Shiro would have to wait a bit longer for her mother to come home, right now she still had more work to do here with Crona. 

That was a good thing, right? 

Crona hoped so.

*

_ “-Wonderful news!”  _ Lord Death said on the phone. Medusa cringed slightly at the shrill sound of his voice  _ “Just what I was hoping for from you and Stein! Oh, and Crona of course!”  _

“I’m glad you’re pleased with our work,” Medusa said “So, does this mean we have the go ahead to move forward into the next phase?”

_ “Why, of course! Hmm, let’s see,”  _ Lord Death said  _ “The next phase… that’s testing on people, right?”  _ Medusa nodded, before she realized that this was a phone conversation and Lord Death couldn’t actually see her,

“Yes,” She said

_ “Then, let me see if I can get together some volunteers for you! It would probably be faster than you looking on your own!” _

“...much appreciated, thank you,” Medusa said, trying to make it sound sincere. Truth be told she was starting to get kind of sick of the DWMA constantly hovering around her, Lord Death in particular. __

_ “Well then! If that was all then you’d better get back to work! I think I’ve occupied you long enough already!”  _ Medusa gritted her teeth. Oh the nerve of him, bossing her around like that!

“Actually,” She said, before Lord Death had a chance to hang up the phone, “I don’t mean to be rude or anything but, is it really still necessary for me to be here? Haven’t you already gotten what you wanted at this point?”

_ “Hmm? But the vaccine is not finished yet, is it?”  _

“It’s almost finished,” 

Lord Death sighed on the other end of the phone

_ “Very well,”  _ He said  _ “At least stick around until Professor Stein is back then. Then I suppose I can release you,”  _

This time it was Medusa’s turn to sigh

“I suppose that’s fair,” She said “Well, that would be all then. Goodbye,” 

_ “Goodb-” _

_ *click* _

Medusa hung up the phone. Looks like she would be stuck here a little bit longer then. But as much as she personally disliked him, she could see where Lord Death was coming from. For as much as she felt… whatever it was that she felt about Crona, she wasn’t sure if she would trust them with being all alone in the lab. Not that she thought they were bad at their job or anything, they had just been acting kind of… weird. Spaced out, maybe? On edge. Especially today. Medusa wondered if it might have anything to do with… no _ that _ would be almost too odd of a coincidence, wouldn’t it? Then again, stranger things had happened, and the evidence  _ was  _ there... Whatever the case she should probably get back to them, it would be rude to leave them alone for too long after all. 

Crona, however, didn’t seem to appreciate her courtesy towards them, as they looked up at her like a deer in the headlights the moment she re-entered the lab. 

“Good news,” she said, deciding to ignore the way they were looking at her at her. She was starting to get used to it, “The DWMA has approved the next phase of testing. Furthermore, they’re sending volunteers to help us out,” Crona nodded slowly, like they’d been lost in thoughts again… typical, “Hopefully it won’t take them too long, so we should start preparing for it right away. I don’t know if I will personally be around to oversee it though, from now on I'm only sticking around until Stein is back,”  _ That  _ seemed to really get Crona’s attention. As they, surprise surprise, flinched at her words,

“Y-y-you are?” They stammered “but…” 

“Is there a problem with that?” Medusa asked. Crona furiously shook their head,

“N-no! Not at all! It’s just… I - I’m just surprised, that’s all,” They said, “It’s - it’s very soon and… I guess I was, just… thinking you would stay longer…” Medusa sighed

“Well, this is what’s been decided. And besides, you surely have no reason to want me to remain here longer than I have too, do you?”

“...no, I don’t…” 

“Thought so, then let’s get back to work,” Crona nodded sullenly. Suspicious. 

The rest of the day went by relatively uneventfully, as there wasn’t much left to do other than to double check and confirm what they already knew, document results, and make plans for the next phase of trials. Medusa left the lab early in the evening, returning to her cell with far too much time to spare for her liking. 

Crona also felt like they had way too much time left over once Medusa was gone. They had gotten so used to working late lately, now having free time before dinner almost made them feel a bit guilty. And even worse, it gave them time to  _ think _ . 

… Ok, so Medusa  _ was _ leaving soon... Probably. How soon was soon exactly? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? How was Crona supposed to deal with this if they didn’t know when it would happen?! It all depended on when Stein would get better, which was of course a  _ good  _ thing. Crona missed Stein, they wanted him back into the lab with them soon, but Medusa… 

Aargh!

Currently laying in their bed on their stomach, Crona stuffed their face into their pillow and screamed. 

Why? Why did everything right now have to be so complicated?!

Ragnarok, who was laying on their back reading comics, seemingly without a care in the world, let out an annoyed grunt at Crona’s little outburst,

“Oi! I’m trying to read here!” he said. Crona shifted their position slightly to try and look at him, when it didn’t work they instead opted to just flop back onto their stomach and stare into nothingness next to them,

“Hey!” Ragnarok protested again as they moved “You miserable little-”

“What should I do Ragnarok?” Crona asked “I can’t go on like this, I don’t think I can deal with these surprises any longer! But I don’t want things to end…”

“Like hell if I know!” Ragnarok said “This is none of my business!”

“...Do you think I should tell her?” Crona asked “Maybe that would make things easier? But…”

“Aww hell no! That sounds like a terrible idea!” Ragnarok exclaimed, “Did you just suddenly forget what she did to us, huh?! That bitch ain’t got no business in our lives anymore!” 

“... no, maybe not but…” The mental image of Shiro re-uniting with her mother once again flashed into Crona’s mind. They felt their eyes water at the thought of the happy family. The family that  _ they  _ weren’t a part of,

“...it’s just not fair,” they mumbled “all this time together, and it’s like I-I-I still mean nothing to her… it’s not fair…” 

Ragnarok sighed loudly and dramatically 

“And what? Do you really,  _ really  _ think that just ‘telling the truth’ is gonna help?! Are you seriously  _ that  _ stupid?!”

“...I don’t know… maybe…” 

“Fine! Tell her then!” Ragnarok said “But I’m telling you, it’s a shitty idea! You’re gonna regret it, mark my words!”

“Tell who what?” Crona looked up in surprise from where they laid on the bed. Marie stood in the doorway wearing an apron, Crona must have not heard her open the door.

“N-nothing,” They said, quickly wiping the tears from their eyes, “i-is dinner ready,” 

“Yup,” Marie said “We’re having soup tonight. I made some for Stein too, thought it would be good for him, although he already seems to be getting better, anyway-” Marie interrupted her own ramblings “-go wash your hands so we can eat. There’s garlic bread too!” 

“Sweet!” Ragnarok said “Come on Crona, let’s go, what are you waiting for?” Crona sluggishly dragged themself out of bed. Marie suddenly stopped them as they reached the doorway,

“Oh, are you okay?” She asked “You look a bit...” Marie made a  _ so-and-so  _ gesture with her hand.

Crona shrugged

“I’m fine… I guess… it’s nothing,” 

“Okay then,” Marie said, not sounding entirely convinced “But if anything is wrong you’d talk to me, right?” 

“...Sure,” Crona said and quickly made their way past Marie, going of to wash their hands.

*

The next phase of tests began the very next day. Crona waited until the test volunteers that Shinigami-sama had sent over went home, before they finally tried to work up the guts to talk to Medusa. 

Keyword being  _ tried _ .

“H-h-hey… uh… uhmm,” 

“Yes,” Medusa looked up from the report she was writing “what is it?” 

“Uh...Uuh,” Crona looked down at the floor and swallowed. They could feel their body trembling slightly from the nervousness. 

_ Come on  _ they thought to themself  _ you can do this. You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you? Stein will be well again soon, it’s now or never!  _

“Uh c-c-can-can I talk to you..?” 

“...You already are, but okay,” Medusa said. Crona took a deep breath. Okay. It was okay. Everything was okay… 

“It’s uh… it’s-it’s about… Do you remember when I told you… a-about my-my-my mom..?” Nope! Nope nope nope, this was a terrible idea, Ragnarok was right, they were already regretting this! 

“I recall, yes,” Medusa said “why?” 

“W-what if… if… if… if I was… No, if I said… that...” Nope, bad bad bad, “...If… if I said that y-you… that you were… If you were…” No stop. Stop stop  _ Stop, _

“If I was… what? Her?” Crona could barely breathe. They were shaking almost violently now, sure that at any moment they would collapse, or throw up, or maybe both. Oooo this was a bad idea! 

Medusa remained silent, just observing them as they struggled to regain their composure for a few seconds, then she said,

“...I am her, aren’t I?” 

Crona’s eyes widened. A sudden wave of fear washed over them as they slowly looked up and met her gaze. Medusa’s eyes were cold… but not cruel. Looking at her, with the way she was looking at them, Crona felt like they were going to cry,

“H-h-how..?” they managed to whisper “How did… did you..?” 

“I figured it out, after that conversation we had the other day,” Medusa said “You are not as subtle with your emotions as you think you are, Crona,” 

oh 

But wait, if she knew back then, then that meant…

“A-and you… you still want to leave?” Crona asked “Even after everything… even if you knew the truth… don’t you… don’t you like…. o-or l-love... me?” Maybe this was the wrong question to ask, but Crona didn’t care. It didn’t matter what Medusa thought of it, they needed to know if they mattered. They needed to know if she cared, if she ever did, if they ever even had a chance to- 

“Honestly,” Medusa sighed “I feel nothing towards you. Neither positive nor negative, sorry,” 

“But...but...I’m your child…” Crona insisted, maybe somewhat desperately, 

“Not to me you are not,” Medusa said “I’m sorry, again. But I do not, and can not, love you,” 

“...oh,” Crona’s heart sank as they lowered their gaze again. 

So that was it. All this time, all that effort had been for nothing. 

… They had no chance. No place in Medusa’s new life… in her family. They never had. 

“Was that all you wanted?” Medusa asked. Crona nodded. “Alright, let me just finish this report and then let’s wrap things up for tonight,” Medusa turned her back towards Crona and continued working. Crona just stood there, feeling empty and staring blankly down at the floor until tears started flowing out of their eyes and turning their vision blurry. 

Somebody knocked on the door. Medusa got out of her seat to open. Looked like it was time for her to go home, whoever was at the door to pick her up exchanged a few words with Medusa before she came back to put the report she was writing away and hang up her lab coat,

“Well, good night then, Crona,” Medusa said, before she followed the DWMA employee outside and closed the door behind her. Crona stood still in the same spot. Ragnarok suddenly popped out of their back,

“Wow,” he said, “That was a disaster,” 

Crona broke down sobbing.

*

Medusa had never really been particularly concerned about her past before. Of course she’d wondered about it sometimes, who she might have been, what sort of work she might have done, what circumstances had led her to suddenly waking up one day all alone with no memories besides her name and no idea of what to do or where to go, but she’d figured pretty quickly that it was probably for the best not to think too much about it. Her past, whatever it was, was something that had very clearly been left behind her, and Medusa felt no particular need to go digging it up again for no reason. After all dwelling too much in the past might make it hard for her to move forward into the future, and Medusa quite liked the one that she had managed to create for herself. 

Still… there was  _ one _ thing, one tiny little remnant of her past, that she just couldn’t really ignore. The stretch marks on her stomach, walking down the street and turning around expecting to tell somebody to  _ ‘hurry up or no TV tonight’  _ but of course nobody was there, giving Shiro a lecture on something she’d done wrong and yet having another name at the tip of her tongue… All signs pointing towards an obvious yet uncomfortable conclusion: that Medusa must have had another child before Shiro, the shadow of whose existence continued to loom over Medusa despite her best attempts to shrug it off. Whoever this child was, there was nothing that she could do for or about them now. After all, Medusa had no idea who they even were, or where they were, or heck, if they were even still alive! 

Medusa would have never expected to find that child in Death City. She _especially_ didn’t expect them to already basically be a grown up, which was probably why it took her so long to finally connect the dots, but after the conversation the two of them had had that one evening there was really no doubt about it anymore. Still, it didn’t have to mean anything. Medusa was more than capable of being a civilized adult and keeping personal matters out of things where they didn’t belong, and she assumed that her new coworker would be able to do the same. But nooo Crona just _had_ to go and make things awkward, didn’t they? At least she had meant it when she told them how she felt about them. Hopefully now they could drop the subject and move on to what really mattered. 

The vaccine seemed to be moving quickly towards being finished. Hopefully Dr Stein would be well enough soon to come back and take over the rest of the work so Medusa could go home. Not that she didn’t enjoy the research and development they were doing here, but aside from the admittedly very interesting science at work Medusa was starting to get really sick and tired of Death City. And now after everything that had happened with Crona she  _ especially  _ wanted to get away before they had the chance to get any more attached to her. It was bad enough when Shiro started to try and cling to her at home (before her father could come and pull her away), Medusa really didn’t need more emotionally dependent people in her life. 

Plus there was also the fact that Medusa already had some research projects set up and in progress at home that the DWMA had interrupted and dragged her away from. She really hoped that her partner would be able to keep them going on his own in her absence, otherwise she might have to start some of them over from the beginning when she came home. She really hoped that wouldn’t be the case, that would be quite a bother. 

Medusa stretched herself out on her bed and sighed. No matter how much she looked forward to going home, for the time being she was still a prisoner. Hopefully that would change soon, but for now there was no use thinking about things she wanted but couldn’t have or she would just end up making herself feel even more frustrated with everything. 

Well, nothing left to do then other than trying to get some sleep. Medusa turned around to face the wall, closed her eyes, and tried to think about something else.

*

“Crona, dinner is ready!” Crona could hear Marie creaking open the door to their room. They didn’t respond to her though, instead they just buried their face deeper into the pillow they were holding. 

“Crona?” Marie stepped into the room and walked over to the bed where Crona was sitting. Crona squeezed the pillow tighter, hoping that if they just ignored her she would go away. Crona didn’t want dinner! They wanted to curl up in a hole somewhere and  _ die _ ! 

Why did it turn out like this? Crona had tried so hard, they’d done everything they could for Medusa to notice them… and for what? Medusa didn’t even seem to care! And now she was going to leave them behind again like they were nothing! It wasn’t fair! It wasn’t! It wasn’t! 

Marie sat down on the bed next to them. She very gently put her hand on their back, and said,

“Crona, are you okay?”

Crona tried to say something, but all that came out was a quiet choked back sob. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Marie asked. Crona shrugged. It might be good to talk about it, they supposed, they just didn’t want to bother Marie with everything… 

“You can tell me, you know?” Marie said “I’m here for you,” Crona let out another sob. She was too nice. Marie was too nice. Unlike Medusa who just pushed Crona away! 

...Medusa… 

“I-I…” Crona struggled to get the words out. They took a few deep breaths, trying to get their crying to stop, before they continued “I… I talked to her… Medusa… She...she said, she-she-she doesn’t l-love me. I-I told her the truth and she-” Crona broke down sobbing again. Why? Why did it have to go like this?! So unfair… 

“Oh Crona,” Marie said, “Come here,” She wrapped her arms around them and pulled them closer. Crona leaned against her, burying their face in her neck as they continued to cry

“Why?” They whispered between the sobs “Why doesn’t she love me? What did I do wrong?” 

“...Nothing,” Marie said, gently stroking their hair “You did nothing wrong, Crona. Medusa is… she’s just like that, okay? It’s not you, I don’t think she loves anybody,” 

“B-but…” Crona said “She said she had a daughter… And a new partner too… Doesn’t she love them?” 

“I don’t know,” Marie said “Maybe she does, maybe she doesn’t. I don’t think you have to worry about it though. I know it sucks when you’re feeling lonely and desperate for love but… You don’t need to go to Medusa to receive it. You have me, and Stein, and Ragnarok, and all your friends, we all already love you!” 

Crona looked up briefly in surprise. 

“Y-you do?” They asked, carefully 

“Of course we do,” Marie said, smiling, 

“...oh,” Crona said “B-but Medusa… it still hurts…” 

“It’s okay if it hurts,” Marie said “As long as you know that you’re not alone, okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Crona said, tears still streaming down their face. They continued crying for a few minutes, Marie holding them tight in her arms the entire time. They couldn’t quite get over the pain from Medusa’s words of abandonment no matter how hard they tried. The thought of her going back home to Shiro and her new partner still stung hard as Crona realized that their mother’s family would never be their own. Still, Marie’s arms felt safe and warm around them, as her calm and steady breathing slowly helped them calm down. _‘This’_ Crona though _‘This must be what a mother’s hugs are supposed_ _to feel like.’_

“Do you feel better now?” Marie asked after a little while had passed

“Y-yeah,” Crona said “...thank you,” 

“Of course!” Marie said “You don’t need to thank me,” 

Crona was about to say something else, but they were interrupted by the sound of their stomach grumbling, 

“Oops,” Marie said laughingly, “Looks like we almost forgot about dinner. Let’s go,” Her and Crona both got up from the bed, and Crona followed her into the kitchen,

“Here’s a plate,” she said and handed it to them “Food is on the stove. There’s quite a lot, so take as much as you like. I’ll see if we have anything to drink...” 

Crona smiled. 

*

A week or so later Crona, Marie, and Ragnarok were once again sitting around the kitchen table eating breakfast together. Stein, who had finally managed to recover from his illness, entered the kitchen and let out a big yawn as he sat down at the table and started fidgeting with the screw in his head,

“Good morning honey,” Marie said. Stein gave both her and Crona a tired smile and reached over to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup of coffee,

“Aah,” He said, after taking a few big gulps “That’s better. So…” Stein reached over and grabbed the basket of bread in the middle of the table “...I heard today will be Medusa’s last day,” 

“Mhm,” Crona nodded and handed him the butter “Y-yeah, she’s going home later…” 

“About time,” Marie said, Stein and Crona both chuckled, 

“Well, I suppose you could say that,” Stein said “Crona, you’ll have to catch me up on what you two have done later, okay?” 

“I-I will,” Crona said, “It’s- it’s all going really well actually, lot’s of good test results, I-I’ll show you the reports later…” 

“Thank you,” Stein said “I knew I could count on you,” Crona felt their face heat up a little. Ragnarok, who had so far been pretty disengaged from the conversation, paused his eating and gently smacked Crona on the head,

“Oi! Stop getting so flustered every time someone compliments you, idiot! It's annoying!” 

“S-sorry!” 

“Now now,” Stein said “Let’s play nice with each other,” 

“Shut up! You can’t tell me what to do!” 

“I just did,” 

“C-calm down Ragnarok,” Crona said “Here, have another sandwich...” Ragnarok grumbled and accepted the offered food. Thankfully he quieted down after that. Marie let out a sigh,

“It’s nice to see that everything is going back to normal,” she said,

“Just wait until we can start vaccinating people for real,” Stein said “Then we can talk about  _ really  _ going back to normal. And speaking of,” He glanced up at the clock “I think it’s about time to get to work,” 

Crona quickly swallowed down the last of their sandwich and stood up from the table,

“O-okay, let’s go,” They said

“Good luck!” Marie said with a smile. Crona smiled back at her, before they and Stein both headed off into the lab.

*

“Well, I’ll be off then,” Medusa said as her Stein and Crona stood outside the lab together later that day “Goodbye,” 

“G-goodbye,” Crona said as they watched her turn around and make her leave. They wondered briefly if she would turn around and wave at them or something like people did in the movies, but when she didn’t Crona wasn’t at all surprised, 

“Are you okay with this?” Stein asked, as the two of them watched as Medusa’s silhouette grew smaller and smaller the further away she got,

“Yeah,” Crona said “It’s okay, I don’t need her anymore,” And it was true. Crona didn’t need Medusa, or her family. They had their own. 

Stein nodded

“Wise choice,” He said 

“...Still,” Crona said “I wonder what happened… Why did her memories disappear?” 

“Hmm,” Stein said “That is a good question. All I know is for sure that Maka took her down with the help of Genie hunter... that technique is known for getting rid of everything evil, it  _ should  _ have destroyed Medusa completely…” 

“Maybe…“ Crona said, as a strange thought suddenly occurred to them “Maybe that’s it. Maybe it did get rid of the evil… maybe that’s why…” 

Stein looked at them 

“Yes, ” He said “Maybe. That’s quite a good theory, shame we didn’t get a chance to look more into it,” 

“...I don’t think I’d want to look more into it,” Crona said “What if her memories suddenly came back…I don’t think I could deal with that,” 

“Yeah, me neither,” Stein said “And you and I have a lot of other things to do anyway, don’t we?” 

“Huh? Oh yeah, we do!” 

“How about you go show me those reports you mentioned earlier? No time to waste right,” 

Crona nodded

“Right!” They said “L-let’s go,” Crona and Stein both turned around and made their way inside through the open doorway. However just as they were about to enter Crona stopped and paused. Taking a look behind them, they couldn’t see Medusa anymore. She was now completely out of sight, like she had never been there in the first place...

“Crona, are you coming?” Stein called out to them from inside. Crona turned back around again and smiled.

“Yeah,” They said, “I’m coming!” And with that, they closed the door behind them and followed Stein into the lab. 


End file.
